Gov. Tim Walz faces new scrutiny as Democratic nominee for vice president. Photo by Michelle Griffith/Minnesota Reformer.
Congressional Republicans sought to embarrass Gov. Tim Walz Tuesday with a subpoena for information about the $250 million Feeding Our Future scandal, the largest pandemic relief fraud in the country.
The subpoena, which arrived about a month after Walz became the Democratic nominee for vice president, came from House Education and Workforce Committee Chair Virginia Foxx, R-N.C., and also went out to Minnesota Department of Education Commissioner Willie Jett, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and its Office of Inspector General.
“You are responsible for the (Minnesota Department of Education) and its administration of (Federal Child Nutrition Programs),” Foxx wrote in the subpoena cover letter to Walz. “Statements in the press by you and your representatives indicate that you and other executive officers were involved, or had knowledge of, MDE’s administration of the FCNP and responsibilities and actions regarding the massive fraud.”
The child nutrition program — funded by the USDA and administered by the state Department of Education — was designed to feed hungry children as schools and daycares shuttered during the pandemic. The U.S. Department of Justice has secured 23 convictions — including five in June after the first jury trial — while dozens more defendants await trial. The investigation has been informally dubbed Feeding Our Future after the Minnesota nonprofit at the center of the conspiracy.
In a statement to the Star Tribune, Walz spokesperson Claire Lancaster said the state “worked diligently to stop the fraud and we’re grateful to the FBI for working with the Department of Education to arrest and charge the individuals involved.”
The state’s legislative auditor found that the MDE failed in its duty to properly oversee millions of federal dollars it administered to nonprofits to feed children during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a special review by the Office of the Legislative Auditor.
The audit found that MDE’s inadequate oversight “created opportunities for fraud.”
Walz told the Star Tribune in June that the auditor’s report was a “fair critique.”
In her letter to Walz, Foxx says “The committee has been unable to obtain substantive responsive materials in the many voluntary requests made in this matter.”
Walz, who spent a dozen years in Congress, is getting a forceful reminder about the bare-knuckle tactics of Beltway Republicans: Foxx’s subpoena comes after her House colleague, U.S. Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., the chair of the House Oversight Committee, sought to drum up suspicions about Walz’s ties with China, announcing an investigation. (Walz taught in China for a year and then led trips there as a teacher; he’s been critical of the regime.)